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And he would desert her now? Turn away from hernow ?

They said the baby had been dead at birth Stillborn, they said A stillborn girl child that had perished inside her

Butbut

Hadn't she felt it row vital under her heart? In her heart This child she hadn't wanted who had becorew inside her

The son, the son, she thought now as her fingers plucked at the buttons of her gown, as her painted lips formed the words over and over

She'd heard him cry Yes, yes, she was sure of it So for her to come and soothe him

But when she went to the nursery, looked in the crib, it was empty Like her as empty

They said she was , she saw the way they looked at her But she wasn't mad

Wasn't mad, wasn't mad, she told herself as she paced the bedroom she'd once treated like a palace of sensuality

Now the linens were rarely changed, and the drapes always drawn tight to block out the city And things wentHer servants were thieves Oh, she knew they were thieves and scoundrels And spies

They watched her, and they whispered

One night they would kill her in her bed One night

She couldn't sleep for the fear of it Couldn't sleep for the cries of her son inside her head Calling her Calling her

But she'd gone to the voodoo queen, she ree She'd paid for both with the ruby bracelet Reginald had once given her The stones shaped like bloody hearts against the icy glitter of diamonds

She'd paid for the gris-gris she kept under her pillow, and in a silk bag over her heart She'd paid, and dearly, for the raising spell A spell that had failed